Girl, You Got People

This is one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite fall books “October Suite” by Maxine Clair. In the book, the main character, October Brown, is a single woman who goes off Up North to the Big City to become a teacher during the 1950s. She soon finds herself in love and very pregnant. She tries her best to take care of her taboo pregnancy and at her lowest point, she finds herself in a rooming house all alone desperately trying to figure out what comes next. Just at her breaking point, her two big, burly, fleshy aunts comes hurtling through her rooming house door and one bellows, “Girl, get on up out of this room. We didn’t raise you like this. Girl, you got people, and you don’t have to do this alone.”

I was reminded of this line from “October Suite” this weekend because I had the privilege of spending the last 24 hours with my family during my Uncle Carl’s annual Family and Friends Day at his church. And after a very long series of weeks where my emotional bandwidth has been stretched to its limits, what a joy it is to know that even as grown, independent, and fabulous that I am, I GOT people and indeed, I don’t have to do this alone. Sometimes as a single gal balancing a million different balls in the air, I forget that I don’t have to balance every single ball or be expected to know what happens when one of those balls happens to fall.

What a joy to be reminded this weekend that before I am a writer or an editor, I’m a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a niece, a cousin, and a proud member of the Loyd/Turner/Lakins clan. I have an AMAZING family who loves me, prays for me, and ensures that this journey called life is as funny, joyous, and blessed as it can be.

Thank you God for reminding me that I GOT people and I wouldn’t choose any other people in this world to call my family!